Website Madhi Foundation

The Product Manager, MALA, will be the primary POC for strategizing and executing MALA’s product vision through from ideation to sunset. The focus of this role is to translate the Content Development & Capacity Building team’s classroom instruction ideas into tangible product wireframes and features; subsequently, to communicate this vision to development teams and bring a product into fruition. Additionally, to test the product viability on-ground and iterate based on user feedback. You will own the product vision, design and development and heavily influence the project implementation on ground.

What we do

Madhi works closely with the Tamil Nadu School Education Department to conceptualise and implement large scale quality improvement programmes in Tamil Nadu’s government schools. Over the course of the next 5 years Madhi will strengthen its existing programmes in the state (as well as undertake new programmes) with the singular aim of ensuring transformative improvement in the quality of school education in Tamil Nadu. Madhi’s programmes in Tamil Nadu are consolidated under a single umbrella called Project: TN Soars, comprising 3 critical projects: 1. Ennum Ezhuthum (The Tamil Nadu state Foundational Learning Mission), 2. TechForEdSystems and 3. Tamil Nadu STEAM Model Schools.

Ennum Ezhuthum: We are currently also working as the ‘Chief Management Partner’ for Tamil Nadu’s official Foundational Learning Mission, The ‘Ennum Ezhuthum Mission’ – a Rs. 500 Cr Mission of national and regional importance aimed at universalising foundational learning for all children in Tamil Nadu’s 37,000 government schools.

Project MALA: Project MALA aims to create high-tech, low-tech and no-tech tools which can support child-educators (parents, teachers, volunteers) to build the neuro-linguistic exposure that children require to acquire language proficiency through oracy. Children in rural areas or from low income households have minimal exposure to the English language- particularly oracy. They find the existing english language learning tools inadequate to build fluency in spoken English and also have difficulty in reading to learn from English sources. Project MALA aims to leverage technology and contextually built learning resources to solve this problem.

Tamil Nadu STEAM Model Schools: To ensure holistic growth of children from underserved communities and to empower them with the skills to work toward their dreams, the Department of School Education has embarked on an ambitious project of setting up ‘Tamil Nadu Model Schools’ that will serve children from the most marginalized backgrounds and equip them with skills and knowledge such that their disadvantages get mitigated and no longer impede their success in academics, work and life. Madhi has joined the Department to assist in the setting up of these 38 Model Schools, each exemplifying the principles of equity and inclusion in letter and spirit, enabling every student, irrespective of their background, to receive equal opportunities to aspire and achieve their goals.

The job vacancy detailed here pertains to this Model Schools project. To know more about the work we do, check out our information brochure at bit.ly/MadhiFdn_LearnMore

Your team (Scale and Innovations)

The Scale and Innovations Team comprises: Maths and Language Achievers (MALA), Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and the Centre for Education Research, India (CERI). The MALA team is a multifaceted group; comprising of data scientists, research specialists, government relations managers, product managers; all of whom prize dynamism and versatility in their approach to work. Each sub-vertical works closely with their relevant Ennum Ezhuthum sub-vertical counterparts to ensure that Madhi’s deep work in Tamil Nadu can add value to the ecosystem at large, whether through effectively scaling successful projects or by producing high quality research outputs. All Madhi’s teams work together seamlessly to make magic happen day after day, doing whatever it takes to take us closer to the vision of reimagining school systems to eliminate the foundational learning crisis in India.

About the role

The challenges you will help solve in this role:

Building a tech product: Which can be utilised (in some capacity) in a variety of classroom contexts, including low-tech and no-tech contexts Which services a diverse array of users (eg- teachers, fellows, volunteers or parents) who are educators to children in primary grades Whose user audience includes children as young as 5 years old
Being the functional bridge between a highly technical team of developers and a team of pedagogical, classroom instruction experts
Bringing elements of human centred design into a bootstrapped product development exercise and product roadmapping

The job description:

Below is an indicative set of responsibilities you will be required to lead as part of your role. We believe that a job description is best created collaboratively where the individual joining the team and the senior leadership team together define the role in greater detail so it reflects your aspirations and ambitions as much as it does the organisation’s needs. A detailed description will be jointly created once the selection process has been completed and you have accepted our offer of employment.

In this role some of your responsibilities will include:

Being the primary POC for strategizing and executing MALA’s product vision from ideation to sunset; support with designing MALA’s content vision
Conceptualise product strategy and support with content & outreach strategy for MALA V1 → Vn
Lead strategy for field research and product iteration and roadmapping;Conduct rapid pilots of new product ideas and iterate based on field inputs and user feedback
Create relevant product development briefs, wireframes and (where necessary) prototypes to inform the development requirements
Be the primary POC for all external product related stakeholders, including: UI/UX designers and app developers; Liaise with the development team and, where necessary, conduct code reviews
Support outreach and donor management efforts, at the initial stages of the project and be the primary front-face point of contact for partnership schools and organisations
Support content brainstorming sessions and create some content collaterals, where necessary
Contribute significantly to setting the Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy for MALA, against both process and impact metrics
You will thrive in this role if you:Possess demonstrable leadership skills and a resilient entrepreneurial mindset
Are meticulous, organised, detail oriented and have a keen eye for user experience and design
Have created mobile app prototypes on Figma or other equivalent tools
Can provide strong, analytical reasoning for product and content related decision making
Are able to make creative recommendations to expand the product base and vision
Have excellent stakeholder management skills
Are interested in understanding the impact of tech-driven pedagogical practices on student learning outcomes
Believe in the power of ed tech to transform student learning outcomes, for every demography
Understand that technology is a singular component of a holistic system which needs to come together for any product to be successful
Have had prior experience of creating end-to-end products for the development sector
Have had prior experience of creating mobile applications for lower income demographics
Have had field exposure to the education sector
Have outstanding formal written communication skills in English

Prerequisites include:

At least 3-5 years of relevant work experience in a product management roles
Experience in the education/development sector would be an added advantage
A degree in a relevant field of study from a reputed institution
Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all Google Suite applications and Canva
At least spoken knowledge of Tamil language

This role will report to: Senior Manager, MALA
Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Remuneration: Rs 11 – 13 Lakhs p.a

Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop, with updated software (MS Office 2016)

For more information, please write to: apply@madhifoundation.org

To apply for this job please visit forms.gle.